Vietnam revokes license for Vung Ro oil refinery project

The south central coastal province of Phu Yen has revoked the investment license for the US$3.2 billion Vung Ro oil refinery project planned by a consortium of the UK’s Technostar Management and Russia’s Telloil.

Construction on the refinery project began in 2014 but has seen little progress.
Construction on the refinery project began in 2014 but has seen little progress.

The move comes after the two investors decided to discontinue the project, which was approved in December 2007 with a total investment of US$1.7 billion and an annual capacity of 4 million tonnes.

The investors later filed to increase the capital to US$3.2 billion and double the capacity to 8 million tonnes.

The project was planned to include a refinery complex and a seaport covering 538 hectares of land and 1,300 hectares of the water surface in Hoa Tam commune, over 20 kilometres to the south of the provincial capital of Tuy Hoa.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held in September 2014 with operations scheduled to commence in 2016 and the first commercial products in 2019.

But construction of the site saw little progress and had stalled for a long time, until recently when the investors voluntarily decided to terminate the project.